MMO's and other PC games are a particular interest of mine. One I spend all too much time doing. Iggep's Blog is where I'll be expressing my thoughts on the various games I play and the industry as a whole.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Children's week 2010

Last year when I did Children's Week it was on my DK who was my main at the time. I only bothered to get the free pet from Dalaran on other toons. I made a few salient points last year by what I felt was an unfair achievement, and all the same complaints I had then remain today. Blizzard didn't change a single aspect of Children's Week for 2010 other than to roll the Dalaran portion of it into its proper week. Except that's broken at the moment. So Children's Week still asks people who may never have even stepped into a Battleground before to not only do that, but to achieve very specific objectives in them on top of it. It's simply not very fair to ask that in my opinion.

As I said, last year I did it on my DK but I was determined to complete Children's week on my two main characters this year -- my Paladin and my Druid. Children's Week was my final world event for What a Long Strange Trip it's Been for him and I was able to complete Children's Week, and the year-long meta achievement today. I was also able to complete Children's Week on my Paladin, however he still has the MidSummer Festival to complete for the year-long meta. If Children's Week is so hard how was I able to fully complete two characters in a single afternoon? Simple. I'm a heavy PVP'er, know my way around all of the battlegrounds, and I knew specifically where to go to achieve the battleground objectives easiest. It also helped that there were actually some flag/tower trading going on today, though I doubt that will continue indefinitely.

If you know what you are doing, AV isn't bad at all. Skip the first tower completely at IB and go for TP or run all the way to Frost Wolf. Most people will stop to fight Galv or take IB tower or Tower Point automatically removing some of your competition. That may, or may not be enough though if you take a less efficient route or get stuck on obstacles along the way. AB is only slightly less easy as your best bet is to run strait for the Stables flag. But as most people will probably be doing that as well you can head for the mine or the lumbar mill instead. If you see no opponents at your location it boils down to whoever is fastest to the flag. But if you do have opponents it boils down to whoever can sneak off to the flag first. If you can stealth do it. Wait for an opportune moment and sneak into the flag when others are fighting, or wait to recap it if it's taken by the other side and no one is looking. Whatever you do, just make sure you have your orphan out when you do it otherwise you won't get credit.

EotS and WSG are going to be the hardest of the four to complete, with WSG possibly being the toughest. If you can find a match where a nice opposing member will pick up the flag and then drop it for people to return and who also won't be killed by an over zealous team mate, you're in like Flynn. Otherwise you have to do it the hard way by actually killing the flag runner and then being in the right place to return the flag once it's dropped, and be the quickest to do so. EotS is just slightly less annoying, except there's one central location to get the flag and everyone trying to get it all at once. Unlike WSG where there just might be a little team work going on with the opposing side, there is no such thing going on in EoTS. Its every man for himself and everyone out for himself all at once. Good luck being the lucky one standing mid-field trying to grab the flag, avoiding area damage, and being quicker than everyone else.

In relation to other battleground achievements during world events where they generally only require you to obtain X number of honorable kills, this world event requires you to obtain specific objectives that are many times more difficult. We can discuss the specific difficulty of the achievement, but when you compare it against all the others and against the back drop that the meta takes an entire year to complete in the first place, doesn't it seem very out of place? Not to mention just a little bit inappropriate considering much of the audience?